While I'm in agreement it should be toned back a bit. It lasts as long as it does to allow lengthy RP after subdual rather than functioning like a cheap knockdown wherein the subdued character is able to fight and attack their subdue-er immediately after getting back up.

Basically, its how it is because the average player can't be trusted not to cheese horribly after being subdued, and the debuff makes running away difficult(usually by encumbering the subdued PC), and a second round of PvP virtually impossible.

Subdual really is an alternative conclusion to PvP rather than retreat or death. Like death, you are weakened, but did not perish, allowing for a continuation of capture, or seeking recovery from your injuries from a healer.

Subdual really is an alternative conclusion to PvP rather than retreat or death. Like death, you are weakened, but did not perish, allowing for a continuation of capture, or seeking recovery from your injuries from a healer.

Halving the time down to 30 minutes couldn't hurt though.

Its a shame that it is so rarely used, since trying to subdue someone is limited to a small spread of specific weapons(virtually none of which are on the 'optimal' list which so many PCs are built around), which makes it situational(and its use unlikely) at best, and makes actually winning the fight harder due to the AB penalty. People would generally rather kill someone and win to raise them later, than try to take them alive and make winning harder by fighting with an inferior weapon at a lower AB than normal.

Simply put, the system isn't an attractive option. It may make RP sense to use it, but mechanically its a terrible option to take, and loathe as I am to say it, this server is rife with powerbuilds, and only on a powerbuild specifically designed with subdual in mind, is it a good idea to even consider using against another one.

I love that the subdual system exists and kind of wish it was the default PVP option. Promote reasons for defeating someone in PVP and then continuing roleplay afterwards, rather than penalizing them for taking an option that’s not kill and move on. Right now it’s just easier to kill them and leave the roleplay at “and then they died, the end” - especially once you consider that most people will either need to burn an expensive scroll or find an altar or a cleric.

All the "chance" factors of death are removed. It's either do or don't.
Once subdued, the character has a minute-long disable.
If a rope is employed, the duration is extended to 30 minutes.
The lasso/rope does not leave the character inventory once used (it's assumed it's just a spare or some length of it). At any time, the capturing character can remove the 30-minutes disable by using the rope again in the same character.
At ANY point during this disable, the character may write -unrelent to expire.

If people want to CHEESE out of subdual, let them. There's no point in forcing RP down somebody's throat, specially if they don't care for it. If somebody, as a player, cannot handle defeat, warranted or otherwise, then that's their problem, and to a very personal level, I don't see any reason to bother putting up much effort to write a story with somebody that is without the inclination to, you know, actually RP.

I'm the first person to complain about characters that think with their AB score and apply it as a method to build a story, but subdual is mostly a RP tool, and everybody involved is in their right to handle the situation as they feel narratively inclined, for good or ill.

there is this thing called "consequences" and generally speaking we are mature ppl and expected to accept them for the course of our actions

Sure, still doesn't mean anyone can force anyone else to engage in capture RP if they don't want to. Some people just don't like interacting with some other people, and would rather not do it after a heated PvP engagement. I'd say not engaging to cool off rather than be acerbic and toxic is the more mature thing to do in such a case.

I want to believe that the server is composed of... mostly sensible adults, and we have the endlessly useful ability of talking with the other players to ensure that everybody has fun. Wisdom comes in the shape of simply finding resolutions that don't aggravate the players, but the characters.

Yes, everybody is free to choose who do they want to interact with, and yes! Consequences matter. Yes, flatly leaving the game is not a choice, but neither is going in a 'I don't wanna' tantrum. If you have a problem with another player or what they are doing, talking it in a sensible, direct tone and voicing why this matters to you is essential.

BY THE SAME PRINCIPLES that we have to trust the other player to be mature enough to play without dadda DM on their shoulder, we have to believe that we can trust them with being part of our stories and playing their parts, as heroes, villains, antagonists, rivals, or whatever archetype they are filling. If you see a player that cannot handle being part of a story, or that literally just plays when they are on the winning side, then that's a player I'm not interested to play with, and yet I'm perfectly willing to go through the same process below.

Talk.
If there's not a resolution? Then you get to exercise your right of walking away.
If Consequences have to matter, then make them matter to be done with the problem. And if that is not enough just get a DM and OOC it henceforth because that's not your problem anymore by miles.